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Use our search function below to sort the films by their English title, the names of directors, or their country of origin. Films can also be filtered by series, genre, or Vancouver International Film Festival venue. You can also browse by film series by visiting our Browse By Series page.

The 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy—and the arrest of her American flatmate, Amanda Knox—sparked a media circus. Michael Winterbottom revisits the case and explores what it’s like to be a filmmaker tackling a salacious story while struggling to retain your integrity. Daniel Brühl and Kate Beckinsale star in this investigation that dances in and out of the shadowy zone separating documentary and fiction, truth and lies.

Pan Nalin, whose Samsara and Ayurveda: Art of Being struck such chords with Vancouverites, turns his spiritually questing eye towards the Kumbh Mela, the sacred Hindu pilgrimage/festival that unfolds along the Ganges and attracts 100 million devotees. By alternating specific characters—a 10-year-old runaway, an aging holy man—with the sheer spectacle on display, Nalin’s gorgeous film is a celebration of diversity.

Terrance Odette’s (Heater, Saint Monica, Sleeping Dogs) drama centres on a Catholic priest (Michael Murphy) in a Niagara Falls parish whose world is turned upside down after he receives a letter alleging sexual transgression. Our sympathies are put to the test as he comes to terms with his memories and deals with the fallout.

Lech Majewski’s follow-up to The Mill and the Cross is another visually ravishing tale, this one about a poet coping with the car-accident deaths of his beloved and best friend. "[Like The Mill…], the visuals are again striking and the theme of death deeply examined… Again there is a strong feeling that the stakes are high—a dialogue with God, a struggle for the soul…"—Hollywood Reporter

Legendary Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer and political dissident Fela Kuti is brought to life in Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s (Taxi to the Dark Side) stirring evocation of the man and his music. Mixing archival concert footage from the 70s and 80s, present-day interviews and behind-the-scenes documentation of the 2009 Broadway musical Fela!, Gibney’s kaleidoscopic film is as protean and rousing as Kuti himself was.

Shot in one bravura take, Shahram Mokri’s blackly comic, coolly inventive art/horror mash-up follows two sinister cooks and a group of students camping at a lake… "The camera’s complex choreography creates fissures in time, piling on stories within stories that trap viewers in an increasingly ominous… nightmare."—Variety. Winner, Special Orizzonti Award for Innovative Content, Venice 2013; Muhr Asia Africa Special Jury Prize, Dubai 2013.

Beginning as a cellphone-shot record of his mother’s losing battle with Alzheimer’s, Jean-Albert Lièvre’s documentary retains its incredible intimacy but grows into a universal testament to dignity. “An unexpectedly hopeful exploration of a terribly sad situation… A portrait of love, patience and the pursuit of a more humane, holistic approach…”—Hollywood Reporter. Winner, Best Documentary, COLCOA 2014.

Tsang Tsui Shan brings the past to life in this beautiful, bittersweet documentary that shares the story of a Hong Kong family and recounts their fortunes over the span of decades, replete with home videos and photos. The culture the film sketches is unique but the emotions it evokes are immediately familiar. "There’s much nostalgia to feel for, and much beauty to behold…"—Hollywood Reporter

It’s a grim irony that while food has become a topic of constant debate, the plight of field workers is more hidden than ever. Correctly likening the role of (mostly immigrant) food pickers to that of modern-day slaves, Sanjay Rawal documents the abuses suffered, while enlisting a stellar group of commentators—Eric Schlosser and Robert Kennedy Jr. among them—to suggest ways forward.

Dima (Artem Bystrov), an honest plumber, discovers a fissure in the foundation of an apartment building that could bring the whole thing down upon the 800 residents—within 24 hours. Yuri Bykov’s electrically paced work has Dima fighting the clock—and a plethora of corrupt officials—to avert disaster. "A distressing moral drama, gripping thriller and scathing sociopolitical portrait of Russia rolled into one."—Hollywood Reporter

Echoing The Hunt’s psychological intensity, Ruben Östlund’s riveting drama features another desperate man whose world crumbles around him. After an avalanche at a ski resort in the Alps, a family’s narrow escape is overshadowed by husband/father Tomas’ cowardice in the clutch. It seems that running for his (own) life is a slight his wife Ebba just can’t shake. "Precisely calibrated… Visually stunning… Emotionally perceptive…"—Variety

Hungarian director/ringmaster György Pálfi (Hukkle) turns an apartment building into seven rings of carnivalesque hell in this stunner. Pálfi essays the grotesqueries of modern life through stories that run the gamut from social realism to sci-fi. “It’s thrilling to see a director in such clear command of the cinematic medium operating in such a playfully stylized way.”—Variety. Winner, Best Director, Karlovy Vary 2014.

Made in Japan by a Taiwanese woman director, this sets a high benchmark for films about female solidarity. A woman returns to the remote peninsula where she grew up; she wants to "find" her father, lost at sea, but instead bonds with a single mother living nearby. Piercing emotional depth and wonderful performances, plus great visual beauty. Tony Rayns